Newspaper’s 'anthology' method questioned

The Paper and its ‘anthology’ method

Colleen Powers picked up a copy of a community publication called The Paper at a North County restaurant, and thought there was something familiar in it.

“I had a feeling that I had read this somewhere else,” Powers said by email. “That’s when I noticed almost word for word copying. I got to thinking, if a student did this they would be expelled and flunked too. It’s very unethical.”

Powers sent a tip to U-T Watchdog, and we took a look.

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Three recent front page articles — one about the history of funerals, another about Navajo tribes and a third about a Civil War love letter — used content taken from various websites, word-for-word, paragraph after paragraph, without attribution.

The Paper’s owner, editor and publisher, Lyle E. Davis, is listed as the author of a four-page June 12 cover story titled, “Tears and Tributes Throughout the Years.” Nearly every word is not his own.

“We don’t see it as plagiarism,” said Davis, 75. “We see it as an anthology.”

Up to 20,000 copies of The Paper are printed weekly and distributed to stands in Escondido, San Marcos, Oceanside, Vista, Carlsbad, San Elijo Hills and Rancho Bernardo.

Cincinnati resident Ken Naegele, founder of The Funeral Source, was upset to see its content heavily used without credit.

“I couldn’t believe how much of it was there. Those first two pages are almost word for word,” Naegele said. “If I could afford an attorney, I would consider legal action, just for the principle.”

Arkansas resident Melody Moorehouse also wrote the article “Early Funerals,” heavily used by Davis. Moorehouse attributed some of her research to Elwin Goolsby, director of the Grant County Museum, and Davis removed the attribution while using the text.

Yes
8% (29)

No
92% (321)

350 total votes.

“Unless the editor/reporter of that publication is an expert in the field, then I don’t really think it is a credible article,” Moorehouse wrote in an email. “If nothing else, I think it would be good to use professional courtesy and give the author(s) whose content he/she is using at least some credit.”

Davis said he is allowed to liberally use other’s work under the legal doctrine of fair use. He said he gives credit if all content in an article was borrowed from a single source and, he said, he sets his own comments aside as editor’s notes in italics.

Copyrighted content can be reproduced without permission under fair use exemptions in copyright law, including when used for the purpose of criticism, parody, commentary, scholarship, teaching and news reporting in some instances.

The U.S. Copyright Office says on its website, “There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.”

When content is challenged in court, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of content used and whether it’s used in a commercial or nonprofit endeavor is considered.

The Paper is free, but ad space isn’t. Its largest ads — full-page or double-page — cost as much as $1,100 and $2,100 an issue. The smallest ads cost $55, or less if multiple weeks are purchased.

Mercedes Bern-Klug, a social work professor at the University of Iowa, wrote a 2002 article for the Encyclopedia of Aging used by Davis without credit.

Informed of its use by The Paper, Bern-Klug said, “That doesn’t smell right… Fair use doesn’t mean you claim other people’s work. Fair use means you can reproduce a limited amount of other’s work and attribute the appropriate source.”

But Davis stands by his practices.

“We are an anthologist. We blend all sources together,” Davis said. “I am comfortable with what we are doing.”